French and Francophone / Women's and Gender Studies

Ashley Byczkowski (Niagara University)

19th-century France is known as a time of transgression, an upheaval of societal norms. But aside from the multiple political revolutions, this time period also gave way to figures that managed to exist between the binaries of society. Examples of transgression, transformation, and transgender can be found throughout the century, ranging from Romanticism’s “génie sans sexe”- George Sand- to J.K. Huysman’s decadent, androgynous, dandy- Des Esseintes. This proposed session invites papers that examine representations of these trans-spaces in and around the literature of the 19th century. Papers could consider biographical, literary, or historical moments of “trans”. Especially encouraged are papers that aim towards a comparative analysis with contemporary Queer and Feminist Critical Theory.

This panel would serve as an opportunity for 19th century French Literature to unveil new resonance with current day issues by a re-examining through the lens of contemporary Queer and Feminist Theory.

This panel invites papers that examine biographical, literary, and historical moments of transgression, transformation, and transgender in 19th-century France. Papers that examine these trans-spaces through the lens of contemporary Queer and Feminist Critical Theory are especially welcome.